Flip this

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Today was International Rock Flipping Day, and I have nothing to show for myself. Granted, had I tried to flip any of the tombstones I saw in the Old Burying Ground in Harvard Square this afternoon, I would have probably gotten arrested. But this morning, while walking Reggie along a quiet, shady trail that follows a woodsy right-of-way in suburban Newton, Massachusetts, I couldn’t find any properly flippable rocks. I flipped several small stones, but nobody was home underneath. And all the larger rocks I encountered were either huge, unmoving boulders or mid-size landscaping stones in people’s gardens…and even I with my bad, bad blogging self don’t feel comfortable flipping rocks in someone else’s backyard.

So, you’ll have to satisfy your rock-flipping curiosity by checking out the Flickr photo pool devoted to the occasion or by clicking the links at the bottom of this post (not this one as originally reported). And by way of showing that there isn’t a complete lack of nature out here in the ‘burbs, here’s a blurry glimpse of the red-tailed hawk I spotted while walking Reggie near Waban Square in Newton yesterday. Between this bird and the one I saw in West Newton in July, I’m thinking we should establish an International Birds in Your (Almost) Backyard Day.